A federal district court today blocked major parts of South Carolina’s anti-immigrant law from going into effect Jan. 1 after a civil rights coalition recently argued the law is unconstitutional, interferes with federal laws, and would cause great harm if implemented.

Attorneys with the American Civil Liberties Union and other civil rights groups asked a federal district judge today to block South Carolina’s anti-immigrant law from taking effect Jan. 1 because it is unconstitutional, interferes with federal laws and would cause great harm in the state.

Last week, 36 immigrant, labor, and faith-based advocacy organizations, including NILC, AFL-CIO, SEIU, and National Council La Raza, sent a letter to Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-MT) and House Ways and Means Ranking Member Sander Levin (D-MI), urging them to reject Republican-led efforts to eliminate the Additional Child Tax Credit for immigrant families. Here is a statement from NILC executive director Marielena Hincapié.

A coalition of civil rights groups today offered evidence that U.S. citizens have been illegally detained, sometimes for many days, due to Immigration and Customs Enforcement “holds” placed on them after these men and women were erroneously flagged as deportable. The U.S. citizens were detained due to Los Angeles County participation in the Dept. of Homeland Security’s Secure Communities (S-Comm), a fingerprint-sharing, federal detention and deportation program.

A federal district court issued a preliminary injunction today that temporarily blocks the application of a provision of Alabama’s anti-immigrant law that threatened to push families who cannot prove lawful status out of their homes. The ruling by U.S. District Judge Myron Thompson is the latest blow for proponents of the ill-conceived law, also known as HB 56.